Sales tax hike set for a vote at tonight's Huntsville City Council meeting

HUNTSVILLE,
Alabama - The Huntsville City Council will decide at its meeting tonight
whether to raise sales taxes to improve Memorial Parkway, University Drive and
other major roads.

Based on recent
comments from council members, it appears Mayor Tommy Battle has the three
votes necessary to increase the city's sales tax from 8 percent to 9 percent on
most purchases. Less clear is whether Council President Mark Russell can win
support for an amendment to have the tax expire after five years.

Tonight's
council meeting starts at 6 p.m. on the ground floor of Huntsville City Hall,
308 Fountain Circle.

If approved,
the 1-cent sales tax hike would take effect March 1, 2014, and generate an
estimated $30 million to $34 million a year in extra revenue for the city.

Under a
proposed deal with the Alabama Department of Transportation, most of that new
money -- $25 million a year - would be earmarked for roads. Battle has said the
rest would go toward industrial recruitment and public infrastructure needs
such as new parks and greenways.

Pending council
approval, Battle and DOT Director John Cooper have agreed to split the costs of
a five-year, $250 million construction program to upgrade several major Huntsville
roads. Here's the list of projects:

2014 -- An extra westbound lane on U.S. 72 East
from Shields Road to Maysville Road, along with turn lane and median
improvements, $9 million; a new road on Chapman Mountain connecting Epworth
Drive with Maysville Road, $5 million.

2015 -- New Parkway overpasses at Byrd Spring and
Lily Flagg roads, including service roads and a reconstructed Martin Road
interchange, $64.5 million.

2016 -- Six-lane University Drive/U.S. 72 West
from Providence Main Street to the Limestone County line, $30 million.

2017 -- New Parkway overpass at Mastin Lake Road
and improvements to the main lanes from Sparkman Drive to north of Mastin Lake,
$53 million; the next leg of the Northern Bypass from Pulaski Pike to the
Parkway, $20 million; upgrades to Cecil Asburn Drive around the Carl T. Jones
Drive intersection in Jones Valley and the U.S. 431 intersection in Hampton
Cove, $15 million; intersection upgrades, a synchronized traffic light system
and possibly extra lanes on the Parkway between Weatherly and Hobbs roads, $15
million.

Battle has
argued against placing an expiration date on the higher sales tax, saying
Huntsville has identified more than $1.5 billion in future road construction needs
that will not be addressed by the DOT program.

That
includes a $700 million Southern Bypass around Redstone Arsenal, extending the
Northern Bypass to U.S. 72 East, widening Research Park Boulevard in the
Cummings Research Park area, and six-laning Interstate 565 from near the
airport to I-65 in Limestone County.

If the city turns down DOT's offer, Battle
has said, there will be virtually no construction on major Huntsville roads for
the next decade because of state funding woes. That would mean standstill
traffic, longer commute times and new industry choosing other cities with
better roads, he said.

"This is the best deal we could strike,"
Battle told AL.com earlier this month. "We have to step up and determine our
own destiny."